Black Rose Petals
by Reef2VampireBlood
Summary: Jak finds a girl with the same Dark Eco powers as him. When he discovers she's just like him, he goes looking for her, setting the stage for events that will change his life forever.
1. Chapter 1

[Black Rose Petals]

[A Jak & Daxter Fanfiction]

***Sorry to do random time jumps, but sometimes I can't get into Jak's character. And I'm still not very good with Jak's personality, but try to ignore it the best you can. ^^ And Daxter is with Tess, so you won't see him much. Lea (pronounced as Leah) is an OC who joined with Torn and Ashelin, and is a computer freak. This takes place 5 years after Jak 2. I don't know how long that makes after Jak 3. I don't remember the time difference between them.**

--

Chapter 1

By Chance

It was only a glimpse of the girl.

But it changed his fate forever.

It was in Haven that he first saw her. The girl was standing at the door of the Headquarters as Jak walked toward it. The moment he noticed her, she turned to look at him with silver eyes. Her lips parted, as if she were about to speak...

And then she vanished, as if she had never been there.

The next time he saw her was in Spargus. More than a glimpse.

This time, Jak was going toward the palace - where he had first awakened to find his father, Damas, who was now dead. Taking the elevator up, and then...

The girl was sitting by the water, and looked startled when Jak appeared. He looked at her just as she stood up, turning hurriedly away, and called, "Wait!" He had sounded more demanding than he had hoped, but it seemed to work, for the girl stopped and turned to look at him, looking frightened.

Jak just barely remembered her face, but was able to tell from her eyes. "You're the girl from Haven."

She nodded. Silver eyes, pale skin, and blonde hair, wearing a white dress that went down to her knees with white boots.

When she didn't say anything, Jak asked, "Who are you?"

She didn't respond to the question, and only stated, "You are tainted." There was a strange mixture of hate and fear in her voice.

Jak looked away, eyes narrowed, and said, "I've been told."

The girl took a step toward him, but then seemed to stop herself. She looked at the ground. "I... I didn't mean it... badly... It's just..."

Jak looked at her, and she turned away. "N-nevermind..."

He took a step toward her. "What's your name?"

She turned back to him, and stuttered, "Ashe. I'm from Haven." She was about to extend her hand, as if offering for Jak to shake it or something, but put it back at her side. Ashe looked at him again, though avoiding his eyes, and said, "I know who you are, Jak. It's hard not to, in Haven... You saved us all." Before Jak could say anything, she said, "And you are one of the others who..." She trailed off. Jak raised an eyebrow.

She suddenly began walking toward him, then completely avoided him and stepped onto the elevator. "I'm sorry. I must go. But I'm sure we will meet again, Jak."

Jak turned around as the elevator began going down, and called, "Why are you in Spargus?"

She looked up and called to him, "I wanted to tell you... But I can't..."

And by the time Jak was going to respond, she was gone.

Back in Haven a few days later. Jak had told Samos and Keira about Ashe. Samos had went off into his lecture about whatever, and Keira had told Jak to ask Lea. If Ashe lived in Haven, she could find her on the computer.

It wasn't what Jak had expected.

Lea pulled up the file only a few seconds after Jak had said Ashe's name. She smiled as she spun the chair around to look at him. "This her?"

Jak looked up at the screen, half-amazed at her speed, half-amazed at what was there. "A test subject?"

Lea nodded, turning back to the screen. "The two years they spent on you were nothing compared to this." she told him. "For seventeen years - from her birth - she was a test subject. You saved her, Jak, whenever you got rid of the Baron. She was freed."

"That was five years ago." Jak said.

"Yeah. Which means she's twenty-two or somethin'." Lea said. "Where'd you find her? Nobody has seen her since she was found and released."

"Outside the front door." he said, examining the file. "Is there any way to track her?"

"You want her, you go get her. I'll search here and contact you if I find her."

Jak looked at the file for a few more moments, then turned to exit.

--

**Crappy first chapter, I know, but I just wanted to get the idea out there so everybody would see it.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**I'm trying to think of what direction I'm going to go with for this character (Ashe). I know how a part of the end is going to be. But Jak is in love with Keira, and I don't want to mess with that relationship. And I'm not **_**just**_** talking relationships. What to do with her... Help me out, guys? And FYI, some of my future ideas for this were inspired by Take It All Away, by Red... Listen to it and try to guess at that. If anybody wants to do a roleplay or anything on Gaia or Solia Online, my username is reef2. Look me up!**

--

It didn't really take long to find her. She was sitting by the fountain right outside **(okay, I **_**know**_** there's a fountain outside HQ... isn't there? I should check, but I'd have to drive all the way to the transport from the monk temple. That'd be boring. Apart from the shooting. I just don't want to do it right now.)** looking up at the sun. Lea called from his communication device, _"I can see her outside my window."_ She laughed before cutting off.

Ashe looked away from the sun to Jak, and said, "You shouldn't be around me... I'm more of a monster than you..."

Jak came up and looked at her strangely. "I doubt that."

She narrowed her eyes, which were looking more gray than silver now. "You were barely tainted compared to me. Seventeen years of dark eco experiments..." She looked away. "I was born in captivity. I don't know who my parents were. They were both killed right after they found out I had eco powers, before I was even a year old."

Jak continued looking at her. "I didn't know my parents, either. Until I met Damas."

She changed the subject. "You are touched by Precursors... Light eco is also inside of you. I have none in me. Nothing to chase away the darkness."

Ashe suddenly looked up at the sky again, then looked at Jak and stood. "I must leave now." she said bitterly, and began walking away. And when she was far enough away, Jak began following her.

Straight to the sewers. Which was a weird place for anybody to be. Especially with metal heads still running around down there. He hoped she wasn't on some suicidal mission or just crazy. _She's the only one like me._ was all he could think when it came to Ashe. Or was she? That was what it seemed. And there wasn't any other files for the dark eco experiments, apart from Jak's... And now that they had checked, Ashe's. Why hadn't he thought to look before? Maybe because it had never occurred to him...

He suddenly noticed he couldn't see her anymore. He hadn't been paying attention. What if she went on ahead? What if she had seen him? ...Where were the metal heads? He had his guns - like always - and ammo. He was ready if they wanted to come out.

After a few minutes - it seemed like hours, and for all he knew, it could have been - he came to a dead-end. Kind of a waterfall-type thing leading into black nothingness. _There's no other way to go... So where is she?_ he thought, but turned around anyways, making his way back.

_"I'm more of a monster than you..."_

Jak stopped, turning around again, but still nothing was there. He began walking again. And when he was almost out of seeing distance, he looked back again at the dead-end. For a moment he saw Ashe's figure, staring at him, looking paler than before with dark gray eyes, darker than they'd been before, and then she disappeared.

Days later, Lea called Jak.

_"I've got somethin' for you, Jak." _she said in a strange, kind of worried tone. _"I've been reading through that file. You know, the one we found the other day, on that girl. The dark eco in her is unstable. Worse than your dark eco. Way unstable... It could burst anytime."_

"Which means?"

_"Which means either she could go on a destructive rampage, or fall over dead. Depends."_

"On what?"

_"I'm not sure yet. I have to do more research. I might need to study your dark eco. If you see her, just make sure you don't get her angry, 'kay?"_

He sighed. "Sure."

_"And Jak?"_ Lea added. _"Be careful."_

Jak smiled, and Lea cut off.

--

**Sorry for another short chapter. But, eh, it was getting late, I was running out of ideas. Send me a message if you think of anything I should throw in there. I haven't added Dax in yet because I couldn't think of anything hilarious for him to say. XD**


	3. Chapter 3 Another Short One, Forgive Me

**Chapter 3**

**Originally, this chapter was all about Ashe.**

**But, eh, I decided against it.**

--

Just the day after, Lea called.

_"Uh, Jak, we have a bit of a situation over here at HQ."_ she said through the communicator. _"I need you down here."_

"What happened?" he asked, already heading for a zoomer.

_"Well, I think I found something... But as soon as I reached that file, the 'Warning' sign started flashing. All systems are off. I had to pull a few wires, literally, to get communications back up."_

"On my way."

When Jak arrived, Ashe was at the front door. Her eyes widened a bit as he approached. "J-Jak, I saw something... I thought you should know... It was, um..."

He raised an eyebrow, and she just looked away and pointed away. "I saw a... a metal head... It went toward the sewers after ripping up some wires near the back of the building..."

"Where are the wires?" Jak asked, and she turned around to lead him to the back. There was a power box, lots of wires ripped up, claw marks everywhere. Jak was instantly sure it was a metal head that did it. Then he thought of something. "Why were you in the sewers?"

Ashe looked at him for a few moments. She seemed pale. "I heard there was something down there..." And on that subject, she said no more.

Jak went to the front elevator, but Ashe stayed out. She just looked at him as the door closed.

When were her eyes black?

Jak stepped into the large computer room, Lea tapping on a bunch of random keys and groaning every few seconds. "Can you believe this? I finally get everything back online, though half the system is still lost, and all of the files I had found on the Dark Warrior projects are erased! They're all gone, deleted, finished! Except for one..." She pressed a few more buttons. "Your file hasn't been deleted completely. Just lost in the system. We may need Dax to retrieve it. Whenever we can get in touch with him."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You can't get in touch with Daxter?"

Lea shook her head. "Nope. Haven't since he went off with Tess. We can't get a hold of her either, and nobody has seen them for a while."

Jak wasn't sure if he should be worried, or let "Orange Lightning" take care of himself.

"Ashe was outside. She said she saw a metal head tearing up wires near the back. It looks pretty messed up."

Lea froze a moment, then turned her chair to look at him. "Ashe? Metal head? Messed up wires? First, why was Ashe out there in the first place? Second, how would a single metal head get by all of our guards? Third, why would a metal head mess up wires?"

He couldn't answer any of those questions, and only said, "I'm going to the sewer."

--

**The short-ness! Well, my little sister was bugging me, and I hadn't really thought beyond this part much. I'll have another update sunday! (Or try, at least.)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Many thanks to random hyper person, for reviewing and giving me the hyper strength to write this chapter after many, many days of not writing a chapter at all because I was going mentally insane thinking chocolate milk was talking to me.**

**Okay, not really. But close enough. random hyper person, I thank you for reviewing in a hyper state. As Johnny said in ****The Outsiders****, STAY GOLD! X3**

**I got my Jak 2 game fixed, and, now that I've finished all the Kingdom Hearts games, gotten done with every Jak game besides that one, and pretty much pwned the Baron in the first boss fight against him, I'm happy. XP Because now I know Jak better. He was all bad-a** in the second game, but quieter in the last two games. I'm now anxiously awaiting The Lost Frontier, coming out this year I believe, and luckily for the PS2. (And the PSP, too.)**

**Must add that I'm confused about the gender of Seem, the monk in Jak 3. The person in the commentary said it was a girl, but the website said it was a boy. So did Dax...**

**Now on with the chapter!**

--

Jak reached the door down to the sewer **(you know, that big one that opens up automatically as you approach it... hurray for automatic doors!) **when Ashe stepped in his way.

"Don't go down there." she said seriously.

Jak frowned. "Listen, I don't-"

"Jak, you don't understand." she said, her tone irritated. "If you go down there, you'll be killed."

"I've gone through worse things than metal heads." he countered.

She was silent for a few moments, staring at him with a strange look in her eyes. Worry and anger, mixed together. Usually she didn't even make eye contact with Jak. She said, "There are worse things than metal heads down there, I assure you... Much worse."

He suddenly shoved passed her, into the elevator that led down to the sewers. She just stepped in after him just before the doors closed. She didn't make eye contact now, but Jak was looking at her. "I don't understand you. Why do you keep appearing, and why are you always secretive?"

Ashe looked at him. Her eyes were black now, completely black, but they flickered back to normal after a few seconds. "Jak. You do not understand the forces at work here... They're powerful..."

His eyes had widened a bit at the darkness in her eyes, but he shook his head. "They?"

Her eyes narrowed suddenly, and the doors flew open behind her. "They, it, does it matter? Stay up in Haven, or Spargus. The Wasteland is even a better place. Stay away from anywhere underground, though." She stepped out suddenly, and the doors closed before Jak could get out. He only got a glimpse of metal heads coming up behind her as the doors closed. He expected to go up, then come back down. But the elevator went up... and didn't open. Didn't move.

A voice entered her mind. "You were supposed to lead him here..."

Ashe turned, seeing some metal heads **(the dog-like ones)** coming near her, snarling and all. She just walked by them. "But you're trying to drive him away... That wasn't part of our deal..."

"Deal?" she asked furiously. "Forget our stupid deal. _He's_ not a monster."

"You mean like you?" the voice asked smoothly.

She was silent for a moment before saying, "Yes. Like me. But I don't care. I've lived my entire life this way. He hasn't."

"So, since he's more human than you, you're giving up the humanity I've offered you?"

Ashe said nothing in response to that.

A few hours later, the doors opened, Lea standing there. Jak had been sitting on the oppsosite side, and had contacted Lea when he realized the door wasn't opening anytime soon.

"You okay?" she asked, going over and helping him up.

"Yeah..." he muttered. "But Ashe is down there. And there were metal heads."

Lea looked away. "She's probably okay if she went down there knowing there were metal heads. Plus, this elevator isn't going to be working for a while. But Jak, I have some news for you."

He raised an eyebrow, and his eyes widened as she said, "We found Tess outside Spargus. Apparently somebody dropped her there. But whoever it was took Daxter."

--

**I have so much writer's block, it's not funny...**


End file.
